What are medieval houses of poor people made up of?

Question

I am working on something important today and I just need to know what are the houses of poor people in medieval times made of. I need to know about the roof and especially the walls and doors. If there is any image available, I would also appreciate that. Thank you.

Answer 1

the dude on the show dirty jobs makes a house such as this on a recent episode. made of cow manure mixture.

Answer 2

Most were made of the cheapest local material, be it rock sundried bricks, or mud and daub. Mud and daub is willow or similar branches woven around a frame and coated over with a mixture of mud, manure and straw (like adobe) and sometimes covered with plaster (stucco)
Most roofs were thatch which is long stems of vegitation (like wheat straw, reeds) which if put up properly make a thick water shedding roof (not water proof) Door ways were normally closed with curtains as framing them was a hassle. Windows were unscreened and unglazed and may have had wooden shutters set in place as well as heavy curtains.

Answer 3

It depends upon what part of the world you were living in. In Siberia for instance, people lived in yurts, which were round huts made of a wooden frame and layers of felt. In much of Europe people built houses by bending saplings and tying them together, then plastering them with mud. They would repeat the process with finer twigs until they had an rectangular or round structure with a hole in the roof to let out smoke (the roof was made of thatch, or grass tied together in clumps). The door was just a hole in the wall, covered with hides or layers of wool. These houses were filthy and people made the situation worse by keeping their livestock right in the house with them (they were very afraid that their livestock would be stolen in the night, or eaten by wolves, and besides the animals provided some extra warmth). This meant that everyone was infested with fleas and lice. There was very little in the way of furniture (most people sat on stumps or short logs) or kitchen utensils. People ate soup by pouring it into a hole carved into their dense and often stale bread.
People in western Russia and Finland lived in log cabins.

Answer 4

The ,ore common ones you see in the film ... Wood as a structure (beams). Sometimes sticks in between these to provide more structure when they add mud and dung pounded together around these and left to dry. Thatched straw roof and mud and straw floor.

Very rarely stone walling.

More common for the really poor would be something really basic out of sticks and straw shown in the third pic here ... http://www.historyonthenet.com/Medieval_Life/houses.htm

Answer 5

It depended largely on time and place. Many were at least wood frame, maybe insulated with sod (see modern icelandic turf houses). Some times of bricks could be used, too. Roofs could be wood, ceramic/terracotta tiles (common in Roman and Spanish houses, and in St Pete, Fl today), thatch (bundles of straw), possibly even hides.

Answer 6

The walls were made of stone using mud and clay as cement to lay in between rocks. The roof were made up of heavy cloths and wood.

Answer 7

You didn't say what country/area.

Thatching (straw, reeds, etc) on roof is common

Wattle and daub is mub plastered on a frame of thin sticks and can be wall or entire dome.

Stone bases were common in rocky areas, with thatch on top.

Answer 8

The roofs were thatched...meaning they were made of straw. The walls were straw and mud.

Here's a link so you can see some of the designs yourself.

Answer 9

if it helps they were called serfs and they had a small mud hut with a straw thatched foof inside was one bed made of straw one low table and maybe a couple of stools behind there house they had a small vegetable patch and a yard for some ducks and geese but their property was constantly being destroyed in times of war their house burned and livestock killed crops trampled and they would have to start over

Answer 10

Many buildings were made of thatch depending on how temporary or well defended a town may be.

Many villages with a small army were often attacked more so they didn't bother building stronger houses. Otherwise they may use stone.

Answer 11

With the most readily available material. Ever see Monty Python's The Holy Grail? Just because it's hilarious doesn't mean it's inaccurate.